Hi John. Great to hear the station as it was back then. I too listened in eagerly as it was either that or Radio One or BBC Radio Merseyside but happily Daffy Don Allen started freelancing on that in too in 1970! The signal was quite good near the coast in South Lancs and the 89FM Snaefell transmitter could be received also. Great number of voices heard there...George Ferguson show,, Bill Chrisp on news, Louise Quirk, Daffy Don Allen and John Hughes on adverts. The actual date of your broadcast is Thurs July 15th 1971 according to the callendar and George Ferguson's on air remark but still my favourite time..from 1968 to 1974. Thank you for the memories John from The Station that all Heart Best Regards Graham
Hi Graham, sorry to take so long in replying, very remiss of me, I've been rather busy and neglected RU-vid. Glad you like it, I was going through some old recordings and thought this should be shared. How fantastic and forward looking of the Manx Government to take this enormous step. I spent my youth fighting for free radio in the UK, many doors were knocked on and shoe leather worn away in our fight for independent radio in those days. I spent many hours chatting on the phone with Don Allen in his Manx days (not my phone, the bosses I was in Wakefield then) We could both talk! I have recordings of radio in Florida in both the 70's and the 80's and how that had changed so in less than 10 years. As soon as I can I will upload edited versions of these recordings too. I live in the sticks in SW France and it takes an age to upload anything here! But many thanks for your comment, much appreciated. All the best John
I'll always remember George Ferguson being a DJ on the Birmingham based ILR station BRMB, which earlier this year celebrated 50 years since coming on air first time. George left BRMB in early 1976 and became a popular daily DJ on Beacon Radio in nearby Wolverhampton, introducing the problem solving service Melting Pot in 1977, running daily until late 1981.
Great DJ yes. Melting Pot was started on Manx radio in 1968 so George must have taken the idea to Beacon. He was always being asked by them at what kind of programmes Manx used to do.
Hi Duncan, Glad you like it, I was going through some old recordings and thought this should be shared. How fantastic and forward looking of the Manx Government to take this enormous step. I spent my youth fighting for free radio in the UK, many doors were knocked on and shoe leather worn away in our fight for independent radio in those days. I have recordings of radio in Florida in both the 70's and the 80's and how that had changed in less than 10 years. As soon as I can I will upload these recordings too. I live in the sticks in SW France and it takes an age to upload anything here! But many thanks for your comment. John.
I will look you up on Phoenix, (Is this the Halifax based station?) I have always loved radio, I was an unpaid station assistant at BBC Radio Leeds in its very early days of local broadcasting, they couldn't pay (they said) but I was getting BBC training, Mmmm, but I had great fun. a friend I made there was an old time broadcaster called Rory O'Dowd, very pro. a great guy whose eventual claim to fame was a wonderful recording they put on a BBC outtakes disc, he read the news and weather totally pissed .... which was nothing really unusual but normally he got away with it, but not that time. He said to me one day "Do you really want to do this as a career with a chance of being like us, drunk & nervous wrecks" I am retired from being a retail Jeweler, so you can see I left radio for a more safe career, but spent all my free time in life with friends in radio and TV and now spending time filming and editing in video and having a great time doing promo and documentary work here in France (small fish, bloody big pond,) their TV standards are so crap it actually makes me look good !!! Keep up the good work, I love that promo by Stan Freberg "Who Listens to Radio?" It is a great media, good on ya mate. Lots of good luck and success. I will make a date to listen tomorrow. John
P.S. I'm a Yorkshire Lad, born Heckmondwike (Shush don't say a word, I know, right shit hole) brought up in Wakefield and lived most of my life in Harrogate (Stray FM country, we applied for the license for Harrogate but Stray got it)
